Improvement in cotton-bale ties



UNITED STIITEs PATENT OEEIcE.,

WILLIAM CHAMBERS, OF NEW ORLEANLOUISIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN COTTON-*BALE TIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 109,804, dated December6, 1870.

I, WILLIAM CHAMBERS, of New Orleans, Louisiana, have invented a certainImprovement in Cotton-Bale Ties, of which the fol-v lowing is aspeciiication:

My improvement belongs `to that class of ties or buckles wherein thebutt-end of the band that is fastened to it is inserted through a sideslit or cleft after the same has been folded into hook form.

It is characterized by two distinct features of novelty, the combinedeffects of which completely remedy the evils to which all existingside-slit ties are subject in actual practice. This I have demonstratedby repeated experiments.

The iirst of the novel points to which I have referred thatdistinguishes my improvement in its mechanical construction consists ofa new mode of making the side slitfor the introduction of the butt-endof the band into its slot and upon its bearing after it has been foldedinto hook form. The effect produced by this feature of my improvement isto make itsimply impossible for said hook to be thrown out of thebuckle-an accident to which all side-slit ties as heretofore constructedare exceedingly subject-under any circumstances whatever, or, in fact,to be withdrawn from the buckle without a twisting or torsion of theband to a certain extent by positive manipulation.

In respect to theside slitI wish in this connection distinctly to statethat I am fully-aware that, per se, it is neither new, nor Jateiitableif it were. It has been in public use for a long period of time, and themaking of it, so far from constituting an invention in the sense of thepatent law, does not even require the exercise of the most moderatemeasure of mechanical skill, it simply forming a hook. It can, moreover,fulfill no function whatsoever irrespective or independently of someother thing or some other mechanical feature or part. Hence it will beunderstood that I lay no claim to such side slit beyond the mere orparticular mode in which I make it, and then only in connection with theother novel feature of my improvement, which consists in so establishingthe bearings for the two ends of the band within my tie that the tensionis taken off the weakest side of the same and thrown on the strongestside, whereby I increase thc power of the tie to resist said tension andavoid the evils resulting from its yielding thereto.

But my invention will be better understood by referring to the drawing,on which- Figure l represents it as when fastened to one end of a bandand in position to receive the other, and Fig. 2 is a plan or top viewof it in detached form.

On the drawing, A marks the device as .a whole, the same being cut outof plate-iron of suitable thickness to the proper size by a suitablemachine, which at the same time cuts away the metal, so as to producethe slots B and C and the side slit or cleft D; or the device may becast.

The slots B and C, it will be observed, are not of rectangular form, ashitherto they have generally been made, but each are so formed that thebearings for cach end of the band extend only a little more than halfthe length of the slots, as shown at a a. This throws the tension on theside of the tie which is opposite the slit D, which is the strongestside, because on it is an unbroken continuity of metal, and thus greatlyincreases the capacity or power'of the tie to resist the strain which isinduced by the elastic properties of the confined cotton within thebale.

The slit D enters the slot O at a point on the side of the buckle, whichwill cause the point E of the barF to project a little beyond the sideI), as is clearly shown at both figures. This makes it necessary, inintroducing the end Gr of the band into slot C, to bend or twist thesame slightly but after this end is once in the slot and resumes itsstraight form the point E interposes an efficient bar against its beingthrown out again by any shock, concussion, or other accident to which abale of cotton can by possibility be subjected.

It will be seen,further, that the band can only be withdrawn from theslot O by twisting the same by hand. Hence it follows that the continualdisconnections between the bands and buckles which now occur in respectto every side-slit buckle that is in use is co1npletely remedied by myimprovement.

The end H of the band is fastened in the usual manner to the buckle bypassing it through slot B B and folding it under, as the slot C in suchmanner as to produce the shown in Fig. l. This may be done at Jche pointE, as herein described, for the purpose factory or afterward, asconvenience may die set forth.

Jcate. W. CHAMBERS.

What I claim is- Witnesses: The laie A,whe11 provided with slots formedH. N. JENKINS,

es shown at B and C, and a slit, D, entering RUFUS R. RHODES.

